On the Playground
by FrankandJoe3
Summary: Dick goes to the playground without Bruce's permission. One-Shot. Several OCs.


**This story is dedicated to Chris, and a bit of part to Emerald Lotus. To Chris, even though I know that you're never going to read this- I love you! To Emerald Lotus- Thanks for the help; you have no idea how much it means to me. Alright, so yes, I came up with this idea, but I ripped it off a bit from Naruto scenes that I saw and felt sad about. OOC alert.**

The playground was full of happy faced children, dashing around with shrieks of laughter. The swings were full with kids playing a common game of Highway Crossing, where kids had to run through the swing set and avoid the swingers. Other kids were racing down the slides, assuring their parents that they could do it on their own. Some were going across the monkey bars and others were playing four square. Either way though, the playground was full.

Parents filled up the benches, watching their children with keen eyes. The children ranged in height, size, age and colors, but racism and bullying never occurred on this playground. The kids, their eyes full of innocence and happiness, looked past things most teens judged others by, and were joined together on the playground. Well, all but one.

There was one boy by the swings, playing Highway Crossing with one of his new friends, Jason. Jason was a blonde boy with green eyes with a deformed thumb, who needed a censor to his name, but the other kids on the swings were used to him. Jason's new friend's name was Richard, but Jason decided to call him Dick because that was easier to remember. Dick had short black hair and piercing blue eyes. Dick's eyes didn't harbor the innocence of the others' though. His eyes held fear and anger, but no one really looked into his eyes so no one noticed.

The swings were occupied by two girls and another boy. The nearest swing held a red haired girl named Kori. She was super tan and had dark green eyes, darker then the freshest of grasses. She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she wasn't homely, that's for sure. The swing beside Kori was occupied by a dark skinned boy with blonde hair named Evan. His eyes were a dark brown. His name was Evan. Then the last swing was occupied by another girl with short black hair. Her eyes were black and she was as pale as pale could be. She wasn't ugly either; in fact, she was very pretty. Her name was Emma.

At the moment, Jason and Dick were the only two kids playing Highway Crossing. Other parents yelled at their kids if they even tried. Jason's parents didn't really care for his well being, so they didn't pay much attention. Dick didn't have any parents there to watch him. In fact, he didn't even have any parents. Jason didn't know that though, nor did he really care. Both of the boys were roughly nine. Dick dashed through the swingers with ease first, having no difficulty at avoiding their feet. He ran silently to the edge in which he wrapped his hand around the bar at the end of the swings to stop himself. Jason soon followed behind, pausing between each swinger.

"So, Dick, what brings you to the playground today?" Jason asked casually, narrowly avoiding Evan's Nikes.

The blue eyed boy turned his attention to his own feet which he dug carefully into the playground's sand.

"You know, just to hang out," he said softly, barely above a whisper.

Dick was extremely shy, as he had been for the past two months. He was afraid to meet people's eyes, let alone talk to them.

"Sure, sure, Dickie boy, let yourself believe that," Jason taunted, leaping beside the boy. "I'm here to avoid my big bro!"

Dick, who didn't really like talking, nodded his head and using his arms, he climbed the bars that supported the swing set to the top bar that supported the swings' chains. Jason watched, amused.

"I mean, Jonnie's mostly a good kid and all, but I broke his door in last night and he wants to kick my ass, ya know?" Jason continued, not caring if Dick was even listening.

Dick nodded his head and slowly got to his feet, walking slowly and carefully across the top bar, stepping over the chains easily. The swingers looked up at him, obviously amused. This boy had talent! He didn't even hold out his arms to balance. He just walked across as if it was nothing, mostly because it was to him. Jason was tempted to try it, but he didn't want to fall and break his neck.

"So I imagine Jonnie will be bringing Mum and Dad down here to keep me under house arrest until I'm in my late fucking fifties, but they can't stop me. I'm Jason, named after the nut in that horror movie from forever ago! I'll kill 'em all before they even attempt it!" he insisted, laughing at his geniusness.

The others made no reaction to him dropping the f-bomb, for they were already used to it. Dick didn't mind either. Growing up where he had, he had become used to language like that. He reached the edge of the bar and sat down on the edge of it before turning to Jason on the other side.

"Why?" he asked, his voice a bit louder now, but still pretty soft.

He turned around on the bar and wound his legs around the bar, setting his hands on it and he slid down gracefully, ignoring all of the eyes on him.

"Why what?" Jason repeated, looking the strange nine year old up and down.

"Why would you want to kill them?" Dick phrased again, sorrow lacing his voice.

Jason raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest.

"I don't really mean that I'd kill them," Jason said, the tone in his voice being similar to one that he would use if he had heard a college professor not know what 1 + 1 was. "It's just a… an expression…"

Dick was now super confused. He ran a shy hand through his hair, embarrassed.

"S-Sorry… I'm so stupid," he muttered.

"You're not stupid," Kori insisted, shooting him a sideways glance. "You just haven't known Jason long."

Dick smiled ever so gently, something rare to see on his face. Kori smiled at that.

"You've got a cute smile ya know," she told him. "You should smile more."

That caused the poor blue eyed babe's face to go red. He set a hand on his neck, unable to lose his smile. Jason, who had a huge crush on Kori, fumed silently across the swing set and quickly dashed past the swingers, not paying attention to the swingers. Before he could get anywhere near Kori or Dick, Evan's feet caught his midsection, kicking him back a few feet, knocking him to the ground. Jason let out a cry of pain. Both Jason and Kori's heads snapped up in surprise. Jason didn't move. Kori leapt from her swing and dashed to his side.

"Oh my God! Jason," she cried in surprise, shaking him softly.

Evan leapt from his swing, kneeling at the boy's side. Jason was huddled into a ball, unconscious. His head was already beginning to form the bruise from where his head had hit the ground.

"Dick, go get help!" Evan ordered, terrified.

Emma got up from her swing and dashed off, beating him to it. Dick, not wanting to feel useless, dashed to Jason's side to and pushed the others away. He turned his head and set it right above Jason's chest, listening for a heartbeat. He heard one within seconds.

"He's okay," Dick whispered, feeling horrible.

Part of him knew this was his all his fault, but for now, he was consumed with guilt. He stood to his feet and backed up slowly. Kori shot him a confused look, but then she turned her attention back to Jason's unconscious body. Dick's blue eyes filled with angry tears.

_Bruce was right… I should've stayed home_ Dick thought miserably.

Then all of a sudden, Dick couldn't back up any further due to something he ran into. He whirled around quickly with wide, terrified eyes, only to see Bruce Wayne standing behind him with angry eyes. Dick's eyes swelled and a soft whimper escaped his lips in fear.

"I-I," he choked out. "S-Sorry…"

Bruce didn't respond. He just grabbed Dick's arm in a tight grasp and pulled Dick after him. The adopted child felt tears spring to his eyes and he felt horrible, but he followed his 'father' miserably. The second they were out of earshot of the people in the park, Bruce knelt before his adopted child.

"Richard," Bruce addressed the teary eyed boy with a stern voice.

Dick was scared to meet the eyes of his caretaker, but he forced himself to.

"You ran off and had me worried. Next time you go off, inform me or Alfred. We won't bite ya know," Bruce reminded him.

A single scared tear slipped from Dick's eyes and his chin trembled. Bruce shook his head and wiped the tear from the boy's eye.

"No tears; I'm not angry at you. Just next time…" Bruce's voice trailed off.

Dick nodded. "I-I'm… I'm sorry…"

Bruce sighed. He felt bad about hurting the boy's feelings, but he had to learn somehow. He stood upright and released Dick's arm.

"Now come on, Alfred prepared lunch."

Dick turned and glanced back at Kori, Jason, Evan and Emma on the playground with a frown. Kori waved softly with a smile.

_You should smile more_ her words rang in his ears.

With that, he forced himself to smile gently and followed Bruce back to the car. Maybe Alfred had made macaroni. Dick had always been a big fan of macaroni.

**And by the way, unless beneath the title of the story, it says 'Chapter 1', it's a one-shot. If you want a chapter story or other one-shots, beg or recommend them. I prefer that you recommend though, because begging freaks me out. If you have any ideas, I'm listening… I have two others to type after this though… **

**And is calling someone an asswipe an insult or a compliment? I've always considered it an insult, but 1000 Ways to Die convinced me otherwise… Sorry that I cuss, I can't help it. I'm trying to be realistic. **

**-FrankandJoe3**

"**These hands weren't meant to create! They were meant to destroy!"**


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